Exosomes Used in Drug Delivery

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Fully certified high-quality exosomes. This is an excellent choice for your exosomes supply if you seek to translate your R&D efforts into faster commercialization:

• Various kinds of purified exosome products, including milk exosome, body fluid exosome, fruit and vegetable exosome, traditional Chinese medicine exosome and so on.
• Exosome CRO service, provides exosome loading with protein and other engineered delivery vector development services.
• Exosome isolation and purification, RNA and proteomics analysis, targeting assays and other services.

Table of Contents

• Exosome in Biomedical Applications
• Engineered Exosomes
• Exosome Products

Exosome is a small membrane-bound vesicle (extracellular vesicle) that is secreted into the extracellular environment by the fusion of multive vesicle bodies (MVBs) with the cell membrane.

Exosomes Characterization:

• Diameter of 30-150 nm.
• Density of 1.10-1.21 g/ml.
• Have cytoplasmic and cytomembrane components of source cells.
• Containing a variety of proteins, mRNAs, miRNAs and lipids.

Figure 1. Composition of exosomes.¹

Exosome in Biomedical Applications

Exosome-based drug delivery systems with unique properties, such as biocompatibility, less toxic, low-uptake machinery, capability to pass contents from one cell to another cell, and do not produce an immune reaction. And the unique feature that they have more tendency to accumulate in the cancerous cell than normal cells make it a good choice as drug delivery vehicles in biomedicine. Currently, exosomes have been developed for the delivery of proteins, peptides, DNA, RNA, small molecules, macromolecules, nucleic acids, etc. In addition, by modifying the targeting molecules on the exosome surface, the enrichment ability of nanoparticles at the lesion site can be improved.

Figure 2. (A)Structure of plant-derived vesicles and their bioactive applications.²
(B)Types of exosomes from different sources in the human body.³

• Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived exosomes (Catalog: CDE23-028)

MSC-derived exosomes themselves possess immunomodulatory, angiogenesis-promoting, and antioxidant effects. As drug carriers, exosomes can also deliver small molecule drugs and enhance cancer therapy through surface modification of targeted molecules. A research group modified the targeting peptide (CP05+P4) on the surface of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived exosomes to achieve specific uptake of bladder cancer and achieve precision therapy. (As shown in Figure 2)

Figure 3. MSC-derived exosomes fight cancer by modifying targeting peptides.⁴

• Milk-derived exosomes (Catalog: CDE23-031)

In addition to being widely used in the medical aesthetic industry, milk-derived exosomes are also very popular in the biomedical industry. Milk-derived exosomes can regulate miRNAs to modulate the immune system, and they can also be used as drug carriers, loaded with substances such as small molecule drugs or proteins for the treatment of diseases such as breast cancer. (As shown in Figure 3)

Figure 4. Milk-derived exosomes deliver RNA for anti-cancer research.⁵

• Cancer cell-derived exosomes (Catalog: CDE23-001~CDE23-007)

Cancer cell-derived exosomes are commonly used as drug carriers for targeted transport of anticancer drugs to treat the same class of tumor. A study reports that exosomes derived from cancer cells fuse preferentially with their parent cancer cells, in vitro. Systemically injected tumor-derived exosomes home to their original tumor tissues. Moreover, compared to Doxil alone, the drug-loaded exosomes showed enhanced therapeutic retention in tumor tissues and eradicated them more effectively in nude mice. This means that exosomes derived from cancer cells are capable of targeting and recognizing cancer cells, and are very promising drug carriers for cancer therapy.

Figure 5. Cancer cell-derived exosomes (HT1080 exo) for delivery of anticancer drugs.⁶

Engineered Exosomes

As the next generation drug delivery system, exosomes possess the following advantages:

• As endogenous biological carriers, exosomes have low immunogenicity and few toxic side effects.
• Exosomes can be circulated to all chambers in the body. It can even be used to deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier.
• Exosomes can protect internal molecules and stabilize them in the peripheral circulation, eventually reaching the target cells.

The engineered exosome platform can achieve targeted therapy at pathological sites by means of exosome-targeted modification and drug loading.

Figure 6. Engineered exosome modification functions.⁷

Flow Chart of Engineered Exosome Production

Exosome Products

References
1. Kalluri R, et al.; The biology, function, and biomedical applications of exosomes. Science. 2020, 367: 6478.
2. Cao M, et al.; Plant exosome nanovesicles (PENs): green delivery platforms. Materials Horizons. 2023, 10(10): 3857-3873.
3. Xie D, et al.; Nucleic acids and proteins carried by exosomes from various sources: Potential role in liver diseases. Frontiers in Physiology. 2022, 13: 957036-957054.
4. Yang J, et al.; Engineered exosome-mediated cobalt sulfide quantum dot targeted delivery for photothermal and chemodynamic anticancer therapy. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology. 2023, 83:104441.
5. Aqil F, et al.; Milk exosomes-Natural nanoparticles for siRNA delivery. Cancer Letters. 2019, 449: 186-195.
6. Qiao L, et al.; Tumor cell-derived exosomes home to their cells of origin and can be used as Trojan horses to deliver cancer drugs. Theranostics. 2020, 10(8):3474-3487.
7. Xiong M, et al.; The novel mechanisms and applications of exosomes in dermatology and cutaneous medical aesthetics. Pharmacological Research. 2021,166: 105490-105504.